


A Very Tennis Christmas

by SolosOrca



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: M/M, why does nowhere sell tennis Christmas decorations??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-19 13:49:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13125018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SolosOrca/pseuds/SolosOrca
Summary: “There’s only angels and crap,” Ryoma complained down the phone to Tezuka, who he’d phoned because Tezuka had to know how stupid all the shopkeepers were stocking angel and tree related decorations instead of tennis ones. “There’s even dinosaur decorations, but no tennis! What the hell?”“They are traditional,” Tezuka replied gravely, a hint of amusement in his voice despite his tone.





	A Very Tennis Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> Happy birthday to my precious tennis boy!! This is a combined Christmas and birthday fic because I've been feeling out of sorts lately and could only write one short thing. I hope you enjoy!!

Both Ryoma and Tezuka had dithered over whether to decorate their small New York flat for Christmas. Which was unusual for them as neither were ones for being indecisive, if a decision was to be made they made it. Normally, they would fly to Ryoma’s parents in California for Christmas, but this year they had commitments in the city until New Year, which they’d promised to spend in Japan with Tezuka’s family. 

In the end, Tezuka had bit the bullet and bought them an artificial tree (as it was the best value for money and didn’t leave pine needles everywhere). The problem was, they had nothing to decorate it with.

Ryoma had set off on a mission into the cold December weather whist Tezuka had been doing a magazine interview to find something, anything, to put on their brand new tree.

Unfortunately, tennis seemed to be out of fashion when it came to christmas decorations. 

“There’s only angels and crap,” Ryoma complained down the phone to Tezuka, who he’d phoned because Tezuka had to know how stupid all the shopkeepers were stocking angel and tree related decorations instead of tennis ones. “There’s even dinosaur decorations, but no tennis! What the hell?”

“They are traditional,” Tezuka replied gravely, a hint of amusement in his voice despite his tone.

“Don’t laugh at me!” Ryoma whined, glaring at a couple who were giving him an odd look. “I’m serious!”

“Clearly you have better taste in Christmas decorations, my dear.”

“I do, don’t I?” Ryoma agreed, looking across the shop at the shelves filled with glittering silver, gold, red and green. All full of disappointment. “They don’t even have cats that look like Karupin! What’s so Christmassy about owls, anyway?”

“I’m sure you’ll find something,” Tezuka said. “I’m about to be interviewed.”

And then he hung up, leaving Ryoma alone in a Christmas hell hole surrounded by people who thought angels and trees and owls were perfectly Christmassy and didn’t see anything wrong with the lack of tennis related decorations. Annoyed with the world in general, Ryoma grabbed some lights and tinsel and waited for half an hour in the stupidly long queue to pay for them.

He rewarded himself with a trip to the sports department. It was almost deserted and peaceful without incessant Christmas music. He could feel the stress draining away as he looked at tennis rackets he had no intention of buying. But his attention was caught by what was on the bottom shelf, plastered in ‘SALE’ stickers.

* * *

 

Tezuka found his boyfriend sat in the middle of the living area floor, surrounded by tennis balls, glue, glitter and tinsel. The tree had been put up in the corner and was covered in little twinkly lights and had a tennis racket taped to the top with grip tape with a yellow cardboard star stuck on the gut.

“You didn’t find anything then?” he asked, watching Ryoma struggling to push a needle and thread through a tennis ball. In front of him was a laptop, do doubt with some kind of youtube tutorial playing on it.

“They had a sale on tennis balls so I decided to make my own decorations,” Ryoma replied, finally getting the needle through tennis ball and typing the thread up do that he could hang the tennis ball on the tree. 

Tezuka nodded, it was a sound idea. “Is that my old racket?” he asked, pointing at the tree topper.

“You haven’t used it for a few years,” Ryoma shrugged. “And I couldn’t find mine.”

“You left it in Japan,” Tezuka said automatically, vaguely wondering if other couples could keep track of each others rackets. 

“Oh, okay.”

“Do you need any help?” Tezuka asked. His interview had gone well, but he’d like to distract himself by doing something useful.

“Can you sew?”

“I’m sure you can teach me.”

Ryoma smirked. “Come on, sit down. Let the great Ryoma-sensei teach you how to sew.”

Sewing was much easier than tennis and soon they were sat on the floor together, threading up tennis balls. 

“Are they all going on the tree?” Tezuka asked, looking at the sea of tennis balls around them. There were far too many to go on it in Tezuka’s opinion, you wouldn’t be able to see the tree for the tennis balls.

“We can hang some elsewhere,” Ryoma replied. “I bought glitter though so we can make them sparkly first.”

“Glitter gets everywhere,” Tezuka said, making a face.

Ryoma gave him a dark look. “You can’t have Christmas without glitter.”

Tezuka at least got some newspaper down before Ryoma started to glitter everything. He left Ryoma to do the sticky, messy job of putting glitter onto the tennis balls, instead he took the balls from Ryoma and started to string them onto the tinsel. Ryoma was trying to make the balls look as though they’d been dusted on top with snow, but the glitter kept getting stuck in the yellow fuzz so that the entire thing as glittery. 

“They certainly look homemade,” Ryoma joked as Tezuka pinned the tinsel up on the low bit of ceiling over the breakfast bar.

Tezuka nodded, but personally prefered it to anything bought from the shops. Homemade and slightly rubbish the tennis balls may be, but they’d been made by the pair of them together and Tezuka was, and always had been, a romantic.

“The tree needs them as well,” Ryoma said as Tezuka finished pinning up the tinsel.

“I only have two hands.”

Ryoma smirked, “if you had more I could think of better things you could do with them than hanging christmas decorations.”

“I’m sure you could,” Tezuka replied, giving him a Look. 

“Imagine having sex with someone with more than two hands,” Ryoma said, sticking his tongue out at Tezuka.

“Anymore of that and you won’t be having sex again.”

“You’re breaking up with me over four handed sex?” Ryoma asked, trying to sound shocked, but failing to hide his laughter. “How am I going to break this to our families?”

“I didn’t say I was breaking up with you,” Tezuka replied, ruffling Ryoma’s hair.

Ryoma looked up at him, frowning. “Mean.”

Tezuka didn’t reply, just picked up a handful of glittery tennis balls and some plain ones and headed to the tree. 

“It doesn’t look too bad,” Ryoma said as Tezuka stood back to see what it looked like.

“It needs more balls,” Tezuka said, ignoring Ryoma’s snort of laughter. 

“Get your ass back over here and help me then!”

Tezuka was put in charge of the glue whilst Ryoma glittered. Karupin joined them, occasionally batting at one of the tennis balls before curling up at Tezuka’s side. 

“Why does he always go to you?” Ryoma said sounding miffed as he hooked an arm under the cat and pulled him towards him.

“I feed him,” Tezuka replied and Ryoma laughed. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent decorating tennis balls. Tezuka dragged some sheets of colour paper from a draw and they cut out christmas shapes and stuck them onto the balls after covering them in more glitter.

If Tezuka was feeling romantic, he’d describe the fully decorated tree as sparkling like a diamond, but he wasn’t. It looked as it was- a plastic tree covered in glittery tennis balls. Frankly, it was a mess.

But that didn’t matter. Not when Ryoma was grinning next to him. 

“We’ll do better next year,” He said, still looking proud at their handiwork. “It won’t look like a couple of 5 year olds made their first Christmas decorations.”

Tezuka wrapped an arm around his waist and pulled him close, nuzzling into his hair. “Are you going to post it on Instagram?”

“Yes,” Ryoma slipped from his grasp and turned to look at their work area, covered in glitter and paper. “Where’s my phone?”

They finally found it- after Tezuka called it- under the sofa where it had slid out of Ryoma’s pocket.


End file.
